The legislation allows citizenship to be acquired after five years and opens up the possibility of dual nationality.

German lawmakers have passed a law to relax rules for acquiring citizenship and lift the ban on dual citizenship.

The bill, introduced by center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s social-liberal coalition, was passed by parliament on Friday with 382 votes to 234 and 23 abstentions.

The law stipulates that people can receive citizenship after five years in Germany or, in the case of “special integration services,” after three years, instead of the current eight or six years.

Children born in Germany automatically receive citizenship if one parent has been a legal resident for five years (instead of eight years).

Dual citizenship, usually only permitted to citizens of other EU countries, will be allowed, allowing tens of thousands of German-born Turks to become voters.

In a video welcoming the citizenship law, Scholz said the law was intended for those who have lived and worked in Germany for “decades.”

“With the new citizenship law, we are saying to everyone who has lived and worked in Germany, often for decades, who adheres to our laws, who is at home here: You belong to Germany,” said Scholz.

The main center-right opposition bloc criticized the project, arguing it would cheapen German citizenship.

“Two passports will be the most normal thing in the world in 2024 and have long been a reality in most countries,” said Social Democratic MP Reem Alabali-Radovan.

“We, the 20 million people with a migrant background, we stay here. “This country belongs to all of us and we will not let it be taken away from us,” she added of the bill that President Frank-Walter Steinmeier must sign for it to become law.

The citizenship reform was one of a series of social reforms that Scholz’s coalition agreed to when it took office in 2021.

Germany previously had one of the most restrictive naturalization laws in the world, with citizenship only granted to people who could prove German ancestry.

But progressives have long called for a citizenship law that recognizes that Germany has been ethnically diverse and multicultural since the arrival of guest workers from Italy and Turkey to ease labor shortages in the 1960s.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the target of protests after senior members were caught discussing plans to deport “unassimilated” German citizens, rejected the law and joined opposition conservatives in warning against a “devaluation” of the German one Passports and import distribution.

“With this law you want to gain new votes,” said Conservative MP Alexander Throm to the coalition politicians. “But be careful: most of them [Turks] Anyone who lives here votes for the AKP [Turkey’s ruling party] And [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan. … They bring the conflict to us.”

However, polls have shown that German Turks, many of whom are of Kurdish or Arab descent, vote for all Turkish parties, none of which are running in Germany’s elections.